Serious

It’s an exam. You might think of it as the exam, but it’s still a test. People prepare for tests. They don’t, if they’re serious about them, just shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh well, que sera, sera!” But if they go too far the other way, think of it as life and death, then they get in the way of their preparations and their potential enjoyment.

You can look forward to it, people do. You can get ideas from the conversation, make new connections. You can do more than pass.

Your viva could be enjoyable!

So how serious do you need to be? Enough to motivate you to ask some questions – to reflect, to prepare, to think for yourself what you need – but not so much you treat it like a sign of the coming apocalypse.